Equinox - Diane Carey [29]
fight Being able to actually rest-well, that was gravy. "Ours can barely hold a laser scalpel," he added, trying to be funny.
She didn't seem to get it. "The doctor is efficient," was her only comment.
Like trying to get a rise out of a sculpture.
Still hopeful, he moved closer. "I've been assigned to help you sort through the biodata. You saved my life... the least I can do is save you a little time."
He didn't tell her that his real motive was to stall her progress by a few hours. Rudy needed time. Max was right-these Voyager people, they didn't need to know everything too soon.
Seven looked at him, then turned down to her work again. No matter how he smiled, she didn't change. Same delivery, same response, low disinterested tone, faint curiosity, no real flame. Too bad all those looks were locked up in there. Apparently he'd misread those big pretty eyes. Lying trapped, half-dead, numb, and starved could do that to you.
Still, couldn't blame a fella for persistence.
He started to say something, some line he came up with that probably wouldn't work, when he was interrupted by a grisly familiar shriek. The alien tone!
He drew his phaser instantly, a reflex, without thinking. An instant later Seven drew hers. Braced for attack, they pointed at two different areas.
'Take cover!" Lessing rasped. "Get down! They always come from above!"
"What comes?" Seven asked, fielding her phaser toward the ceiling.
"The attacks! Contact your bridge! Tell them they have to fortify the shields! Tell them!"
"What kind of life form?"
"Nucleogenic! On a separate spatial plane! We don't know much about them! If a fissure opens, fire into it! Don't wait! Call them, call them!"
"Seven to bridge! We're under attack!"
"Chakotay here. We see it, lab, stand by. Tuvok, what's happening to us?"
"Checking," the Vulcan responded. Suddenly the question seemed silly-he'd tell as soon as he knew. Asking didn't hurry things up any.
Deafened by the ear-splitting screech of the alien invasion tone, Chakotay braced for action and waited. He held a phaser, as did every single member of the bridge crew. That was such a strange sight! This place was the brain center for attacks from outside, not inside.
"Lateral shields are off-line," Tuvok called over the noise.
"How's that possible?" Chakotay demanded.
Before he got an answer, Harry Kim shouted, "Fissures are opening on decks one, eight, and eleven!"
That accounted for the astrometrics lab. Unfortunately, it also accounted for sickbay, with injured and helpless crew still lying down there. Chakotay made a mental note to statio n security guards in sickbay. He'd never thought of such a thing before.
"Reroute power!" he called.
Too late-he should've reacted sooner. Tuvok need-
ed authorization to do that. Though technically simple, rerouting a major power source was a command prerogative only.
Tuvok now worked freely and within five seconds the alien sound pinched to silence.
Squinting with leftover pain in his ears, Tom Paris asked, "What happened?"
Tuvok continued working with uncharacteristic ferocity to shore up the shield power. "Apparently," he explained, "the aliens began to focus their attacks on a single shield vector. It collapsed before the auxiliary emitters could respond."
A dim hopelessness gripped the bridge. They all knew what that meant.
Chakotay smoldered. "It looks like they've changed then" tactics. We may have less time than we thought. Yellow Alert."
"Yellow Alert, aye," Paris responded. He looked glad to have something to do beside run from something they couldn't see and apparently couldn't outpace.
"Janeway to bridge. Report on that last incident."
Due to happen.
Chakotay glanced at Paris, then tapped the command chair comm. "Captain, Chakotay here. We think the aliens have learned to focus on weakened shield vectors. We closed the gap before they broke through, but I'm wondering how long we can keep that